Huskies pay coach sincerest form of flattery

JIM MOOR, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By JIM MOORE, P-I COLUMNIST

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Go 2 Guy also writes for 710Sports.com and kitsapsun.com. Reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter as @cougsgo. He appears weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m. on "Danny, Dave and Moore" on 710 ESPN Seattle radio.

TYRONE WILLINGHAM COMES across as being pretty uptight. He's also predictable. You know what you're going to get from the UW football coach -- not much. And you'll get it in measured monotone doses, as if war looms.

Which is great. His dial-tone delivery never changes. Deep down, very deep down, I love the guy. Love that he closes practices (less to do) and love that he takes everything so seriously (more to mock). Even drill sergeants think he needs to lighten up.

According to a story in the Seattle Times this week, Willingham banned a Tyee booster from going to practice and is making like Erik Bedard with the newspaper's beat writer.

Just once I'd like to see him guzzle a shot of Wild Turkey and say: "Coach Willingham enjoyed that. May I have another?"

Because he's such a golf nut, I figured he might loosen up on the course. But no, former UW athletic director Todd Turner said it doesn't happen there either -- Willingham grinds away, seeking perfection at all times. The Huskies will tell you that he's constantly working on his swing.

He has his moments. OK, moment. I found one.

He apparently dances. I say apparently because I have a hard time believing it. But his starting tailback, Chris Polk, swears he saw him dancing.

It happened after study table in his office. Teammates Brandon Johnson, Anthony Boyles and Quinton Richardson were there, too. Polk said he danced in front of them, to "jazz and old-school music."

"I don't think he was good, but he was probably good back in the day," Polk said.

His persona is ripe to be parodied. I thought I was the only one bored enough to be impersonating Willingham when I discovered that his players do, too.

Willingham has his favorite impersonators, saying that Troy Walters did him best at Stanford.

"He had all of the little idiosyncrasies down," Willingham said. "But Vonzell's making a run for it."

When I told him I was also working on my Willingham impression, he called me on it and said: "Let's hear it." So I stood there face to face with the man and did it, no doubt sounding and looking like an idiot.

Other scribes said I had the terminology, but the voice was off. I emphasized "focus" and tried to say "OK" at the end of every sentence but somehow forgot to mention "young men." Frank Caliendo, I'm not.

Willingham saw potential, but his players are better. They see him every day and know his mannerisms.

Dailey did his first Willingham impression in a skit during last summer's workouts. The players were acting up at a party in a dorm, and the coach reprimanded them. Dailey nailed it. The whole place went wild.

Along with McDowell, Griffin and Davenport, Dailey agreed to be videoed before a recent practice. I asked them a few questions while they pretended to be Willingham. Dailey best captured the coach's hand gestures.

Griffin said Willingham starts off every meeting with: "Men, pay attention to detail."

McDowell was self-conscious as it was, then got real hesitant when Willingham ran by during the taping. McDowell said if you're going to try to pull it off, it's important to have the "coach Willingham apparel," featuring high socks, high pants, tucked-in shirt and a wristband.

Davenport enjoyed playing along, though he admitted that his Willingham impersonation was starting to sound like Dr. Martin Luther King.

"Can the Huskies win the Pac-10 title?" I asked Davenport.

"Do trees have leaves?" he replied as Willingham.

It was all in good fun, but if you were to ask Dawg fans, they'd rather see a different impersonation -- the one with Willingham doing Pete Carroll.